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A new COVID-19 variant has been identified amid a rise in hospitalizations and cases being reported by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC).
COVID hospital admissions during the week ending Saturday, July 29, increased 12.5 percent over the previous week, according to CDC data.
In addition, visits to the emergency room were up more than 21.8 percent, and the positive test percentage increased 1.3 percent.
One of the causes of the trend could be excessive heat, which is sending people indoors into air-conditioned settings.
The US has seen increases in COVID each of the last three summers, and this year's increases in cases and hospitalizations are notably lower than the surge in the summer of 2022 fueled by the BA.5 Omicron subvariant.
A new variant, EG.5, is causing about 17 percent of cases nationwide, with about 16 percent of cases linked to the XBB.1.16 strain known as Arcturus, according to CDC estimates.
Arcturus was first identified in March of this year.
On Wednesday, Aug. 9, the World Health Organization warned that EG.5, a descendent of the Omicron strain and the XBB subvariant, could lead to an increase in infections.
"Due to its growth advantage and immune escape characteristics, EG.5 may cause a rise in case incidence and become dominant in some countries or even globally," the WHO said.
Despite the new uptick, hospitalizations for COVID cases are still at a historic low since the pandemic began in March 2020, a CDC graph shows.
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